Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Mike Trout’s latest injury, Pete Alonso’s renaissance, a Daulton Varsho recovery catch, Andrés Muñoz the cat guy, and the called strike zone (sort of) shrinking. Then (40:49) they bring on top-tier Patreon supporter Carson Otter to talk about his background with baseball and the podcast, share his baseball-related work experience, and answer listener emails about home teams hiring umpires, the one Statcast stat about Babe Ruth they would want, and a way to extend a consecutive-games-played streak without playing.

Audio interstitial: Dave Armstrong and Mike Murray, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Audio outro: Beatwriter, “Effectively Wild Theme”

Link to WhatIfSports offer page

Link to Ella Black series

Link to Ella Black event details

Link to Jay on Trout

Link to Blum on Trout

Link to Trout wOBA-xwOBA

Link to Trout hypotheticals

Link to The Athletic on Alonso

Link to Varsho play

Link to Varsho quote

Link to Muñoz story

Link to recent pets study

Link to The Athletic on the zone

Link to postseason HFA

Link to umpiring history

Link to EBUG history

Link to Ottavino on Ruth

Link to Ben on caliber of play

Link to Ripken injury info

Link to listener emails database

Link to Homestand

Link to “Wake up babe” meme

 Sponsor Us on Patreon

 Give a Gift Subscription

 Email Us: [email protected]

 Effectively Wild Wiki

 Get Our Merch!